What Happened?
by hurleycat
Summary: (sequel to It Happened.) Everyone wondered what happened, but Dan and Phil had a difficult time explaining it.
1. What Happened?

Title: What Happened?

Sequel To: It Happened. (SO GO READ THAT FIRST)

Word Count: 2,702

Disclaimer: If I owned Dan and Phil, the radio show would have been at a more convenient time for Americans to watch D':

Author's Note: I wasn't gonna write a sequel, but then I did. So… yeah.

**_When Phil Tried to Explain What Happened_**

It didn't take long for their fans to notice that Dan was filming from a hotel room. Phil shied away from all the questions they were getting and ended up avoiding all forms of social media because he knew he'd just be faced with more and more questions about why Dan wasn't home with him.

Phil noticed that Dan seemed to be ignoring the questions too. As much as he hated to admit it, he had stalked Dan's profiles on pretty much every website the morning after he left. He had done it mainly because he wanted to see if Dan was saying anything about the incident—he wasn't—but also because he kind of missed Dan.

It took a little over a week and two regular videos from Dan for the fandom to really freak out. The silence on the topic was concerning them, and they "wanted some fricken answers, Philip and Danyul!"

Realizing that Dan wasn't going to do anything, Phil set up his camera and sat leaning against his bed. He crossed his legs in front of him, finding comfort in that position for some reason. It took him a moment, but he started to talk.

"So…" He trailed off and looked around. Okay, he would have to start that again. "So, as some of you may have noticed, Dan has been staying in a hotel room for the past few weeks. I know that a lot of you have been freaking out about where he's gonna live, but don't worry; he's looking into a new apartment."

Phil stopped. This was proving to be harder than he'd thought it would be. He knew the general gist of what he wanted to tell all his fans: _He and Dan had broken up. They weren't going to get back together, but hopefully they could still be friends. They had decided together that they should be apart, and neither of them was at fault_. (Okay, maybe the last part was kind of a lie, but he didn't want to cause a bigger shitstorm than this would already inevitably stir up anyway.)

Phil got awkwardly back into a good position to talk to the camera and said, "Um… So—for those of you who wanted to know why he's not living here anymore…"

Phil couldn't do it. He touched the side of his face where the bruise had been—it was almost completely faded now and could only be found it he was looking for it in the right light. He knew that nobody would be able to see it with the camera he was using, but he was incredibly self-conscious about it. The idea that someone might see it and know he was lying to them made him more nervous than it should have.

He tried to focus again. This was going to be terrible to edit if he didn't stop faltering. He started his sentence again, "So for those of you who wanted to know why he's not living here anymore—um—we broke up." He stopped, knowing he'd need to leave reaction time before he continued. "Yeah. If you didn't know, we'd been dating for a while, but now we've decided to call it quits."

Okay. He could do this. He just had to keep going.

"It was kind of a mutual decision," Phil explained, starting to feel a little bit better about the speech he was giving. "It's not like I kicked him out or anything. No. We decided that it would be better for both of us if we weren't together anymore."

How was he supposed to explain that to a mass of teenage girls?

"It was like… both of our lives were only more difficult from trying to make this failing relationship work. And I'm sure some of you can relate to this. It's not that either of us broke the other's heart or anything. We did this together, and I'm hoping that we can still be friends after this."

There: He'd gotten out everything that he needed to say. Now he could move on to talk about regular vlog-y things to make people think that the breakup really wasn't that big of a deal and remind them that life goes on.

"On another note, food has started disappearing in our—er, my—house." He continued to talk until he had enough to take up about four minutes then said goodbye and shut off the camera.

That had been the hardest thing he had ever done. He had wanted to badly to tell them what happened, but he knew that he would only end up hurting Dan if he did that. He didn't want this to end with anyone worse for wear, but he wanted to be able to connect with someone. He knew that at least one of his fans out there would be able to relate about what had happened with Dan, and he really just needed to talk to someone about it.

But Phil would never tell anyone. This was his secret to keep, and if Dan kept his mouth shut, nobody would ever have to know.

Phil wasn't sure if that's what he really wanted, but that's how it would be.

**_When Dan Tried to Explain What Happened_**

Dan saw the video. He had watched it over and over again, sadly watching as the boy he loved most in the world fumbled over his words. Phil had been too sweet when he told the fans why they broke up. He could have very easily just told everyone what had really happened and Dan's life would have been ruined—but Phil wouldn't do that. He had spared Dan because he was just a kind, loving, perfect person.

Phil's overwhelming kindness wasn't what got to Dan the most though. What really upset Dan were the comments on the video. Some of them were just sweet condolences about their sad breakup, and those actually made Dan smile because they were from the fans who really, truly cared.

But then there were the ones usually along the lines of, "When someone says that it was a mutual thing, it's always that person who did the dumping." Those ones weren't too bad; they just made Dan said because he knew that Phil shouldn't be held at fault here. Or the worst ones were, "Phil probably dumped him. He was probably a dick about it too." There were ones that just went on to insult Phil and accuse him of hurting Dan.

It broke Dan's heart to see these ones. Phil was such a good person; he shouldn't be accused of that. If anyone had been the dick in the breakup, it was definitely Dan. If only they knew what he had done. Then Phil would get reprieve from the nasty comments.

After reading some particularly horrible ones, Dan decided to make his Friday video to explain some things that Phil had left out.

Dan wanted to say what a horrible thing he'd done—just so people would see how not-at-fault Phil was—but something in him thought that maybe Phil didn't want that. He figured that if Phil had wanted people to know, he would have said something, so Dan decided to leave that out.

On Thursday afternoon, Dan set up his camera again and sat down between the two beds in the hotel room. "Hello, internet!" he started. He wanted to pause and hesitate, but he knew that if he stopped, he'd never be able to start again. He decided to start on a happy note then get serious. "So, good news: this is the last time I'll be filming from a hotel room! I've found an apartment to move in to. I've met up with the guy who I'll be sharing with, and he seems pretty cool, so that's good! I was getting pretty sick of these terrible hotel beds."

He patted the bed beside him and grimaced. They really were hard and lumpy; he hadn't slept well since he'd gotten there.

"Um, but a lot of you have been asking why I'm here in the first place… My boyf—er— my ex-boyfriend made a video about it. If you aren't subscribed to him—I don't know why you wouldn't be, he's awesome—you could go check that out. But I'm going to clear up a few things he left out in his explanation that I feel like you guys should know.

"Phil told you guys that we broke up and that's why I haven't been living there. Um—but he didn't clear it up quite enough, and it seemed like a lot of people thought he was at fault, which really isn't true."

_Okay_, Dan thought, _here goes_. "Phil told you guys that nobody was at fault—yeah—but, if anyone was, it was me."

Dan paused, unsure of how to continue. He was used to bearing his flaws for his audience, but that was always joking; this was real, serious stuff, and he didn't really know how to handle it. He was scared that they would all turn away from him once they knew—though he'd probably deserve it.

"I… I was a terrible boyfriend to Phil. I didn't treat him the way that he deserved to be treated, and I just… I really screwed up. Phil did his best to keep all the pieces together, but I just really messed up and…"

Dan stopped. It suddenly occurred to him what Phil might think when he saw this. Would he be glad that Dan owned up to his mistakes? Or would he be upset? Was there a reason he had left all this out of his explanation and then he'd be upset that Dan told? Well, Dan would just have to hope that he was doing the right thing.

"Because I didn't know how to treat him, our relationship just… it just screwed the both of us over, and we were miserable, and it was just better that it ended.

"I really hope that you guys can stop blaming Phil as a lot of people already have… If you're going to blame anyone, blame me, but it would be best if we just put all this to rest so Phil and I can just move on and life can go on."

There. He'd done it. Now he could try to put it all behind him.

**_When Everyone Figured Out What Happened_**

People started freaking out less than an hour after the video was posted.

Quite a few of the comments them were from decent, polite people saying that they hoped Dan and Phil were okay and that they hoped for the best for both of them. There were also a lot from people who didn't really care about the drama in Dan's life, and he found he liked those comments the best.

But there were also a lot from people demanding even more answers, as if Dan hadn't bore his soul for them already. He'd told them everything they deserved to know and nothing more; they shouldn't be asking for more out of him, but almost everyone was.

A lot of the comments were along the lines of, "What did you do?" or "It didn't seem like you didn't treat him well." He really, really hated those ones because they just made him think about the terrible thing he had done.

Those didn't seem so bad though once Tumblr started to go crazy about a day after the video was posted. Dan had gone on to see what people were saying and was horrified when he saw the very first post. It said at the top, "Guys, Does anyone remember this?" Then there was a picture of Phil with a fan while the bruise on his face was still pretty bad. Below was, "And now this" followed by a gif of Dan saying, "I didn't treat him the way he deserved to be treated." The post was finished with the blogger saying, "Am I the only one a tiny bit concerned?"

Oh God. They knew. Someone had figured it out and now everyone knew what an awful, terrible, abhorrent person he was. Now they would all turn away from him and blame him—and everything was just going to fall apart around him.

Dan, leaning forward on his desk, clicked on the notes and, seeing how many times it had been reblogged, felt sick. So many people knew, and so many more would know before the day was out. Oh God, oh God…

It took him a second to realize it, but his phone was ringing. It was Phil's ringtone. Dan picked it up and flatly said, "Hey."

"Um. Hi," Phil said awkwardly.

Dan hadn't heard Phil's voice in so long. Sure—he'd watched the video and stuff, but hearing him talking _specifically_ _to_ Dan made Dan's heart pick up. God—he missed Phil. He missed that voice, and he missed the lips it was coming from. Dan missed everything about Phil so much that it hurt.

After a few seconds of silence, Phil said, "I—uh—I saw the video."

Dan felt the need to explain. "I just didn't like how everyone was blaming you. You didn't do anything wrong," he said.

"I know. I get it," Phil responded. He sounded tired, Dan noticed. "I just think… we shouldn't have told them that much. I mean… have you been on Tumblr or Twitter or anything yet today? I know you probably just woke up but…"

Being reminded that Phil knew his sleep patterns so well sent another pain through Dan's heart.

"Yeah, I just got on Tumblr," Dan choked out. "They _know_, Phil. They all know."

Phil didn't respond for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Don't worry. I'll figure something out. I'll fix this."

Dan was confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We can't have people thinking you're some mindless abuser. We'll stick to the phone-falling-on-face story. In fact…"

Phil paused and it sounded like he was pressing the phone between his shoulder and ear. Dan wondered what he was doing but didn't ask, settling on patiently waiting for Phil to continue explaining.

"Ha, I knew it," Phil said eventually, more to himself. "Someone on VYou asked if you gave me the bruise. Now all I have to do is say no and—"

"No!" Dan interrupted before he could stop himself.

It wasn't right that Phil felt like he had to lie to his fans to cover up for Dan's stupid mistakes. Phil should be able to proclaim to the world, "I'm the victim here!" and not have to say that Dan hadn't done anything.

Phil didn't say anything for a few seconds. "But… why?"

"You shouldn't have to lie about this," Dan answered morosely. He stood up from his desk and started pacing around his room. "What I did was awful—and you lying about it would just make it seem like you're scared of me or something and I just can't—" He stopped.

What if…? No…

"You—you're not actually scared of me?" Dan stuttered out. "Right?"

The only sound Dan could hear was static silence. A few moments passed, and his heart started racing. Phil was _scared_ of him.

"Fine," Phil said finally. "I won't deny it, but I'm not confirming anything to anyone, okay? I gotta go. Bye."

Dan felt overwhelmingly sad as it set in that Phil—perfect, lovable, amazing Phil—was scared of him. The fact that he had done something so terrible to terrify Phil just killed him and he wasn't sure he'd be able to force himself to speak through his misery from knowing.

"Okay," Dan forced himself to say, but it sounded choked. "I guess that's okay." He paused for a long moment and gathered up as much courage as he could muster. "I love you," he whispered.

He waited for a response then pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the screen. His heart dropped to his stomach at seeing his home screen instead of a call screen.

Phil had already hung up.

Phil was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

There's another sequel up! *happy dance* It's called Shit Happens, and it's the final part of this plot, so this is the end of it all! Since this will be my last author's note for this story, I just wanna say thank you for all the support you guys have given me!

PS: You! Yeah you! Wanna know something? You're pretty fricken awesome. 3


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